The Providence of Mendoza is our final destination in Argentina. The decision to upgrade ourselves to the full cama (bed) bus for the this 14 hour bus ride was a great idea. It end up being the Lufthansa of buses.  The bus had a stewardess and included a free mini bottle of wine, a large dinner and a mini breakfast.

Mendoza is located at the foothills of the Andes Mountain range along the Argentinean and Chilean border.  It is a popular tourist spot in the both the summer and winter.  In the summer for their are hiking, horseback riding, rafting, and many other adventure sports excursions.  In the winter many people arrive for the ski resorts located in the Andes Mountains. In addition to tourism, Mendoza has two additional major industries; wine and olive oil production.  Mendoza is the largest wine producing area in Latin America and is considered one of the top ten wine capitals of the world.


Because of this we took a wine tour which of coarse included some wine tasting!!!



Our first stop on our wine tour was Don Arturo, a small family owned and run vineyard.  They only make 4 types of wine, all of which are reds: Malbec (which is the varietal that Argentina is famous for), Melot, Caberne, and Shiraz.  We toured the vineyard, the fermentation room, storage cellar and their museum of antiques previously used on the vineyard.






Our second stop was at Fabrica Laur an olive oil plant.  Did you know that the olives used for olive oil are difference from those intended for consumption?  Also that green, purple, and black all come from the same tree?  I didn't until this trip.





Our third and final stop was Vistandes, a modern vineyard that recently opened in 2003.  The building in which they operated was a stark difference from the one we saw on our first stop.  This building was built to show elegance and was intended to be used to host parties and corporate meetings.  Our English speaking guide was very informative for us neophytes.